[Open Discussion] How to Manage Incoming Marketing Requests

I often read threads throughout the Community from marketers who are looking to automate their work in-take so their teams can effectively manage the Tasks and Projects coming from their co-workers and clients.

For our very own Marketing Automation Team Lead, Mariam, it’s all about leveraging Request Forms in Wrike. This approach ensures tasks are not lost and that requirements are provided so her team can work effectively. This allows her team to work confidently knowing exactly what’s work is on the horizon, making it easier to plan and deliver items on time.

What type of Requests Forms is your marketing team using? Share your experiences below and ask any question you have for other marketing teams.

Originally we decided upon one dynamic work request form with dropdowns leading the requester to multiple options. We are now in the process of changing the requester's experience to choose from specific forms depending upon what they need. For example, we have standardized workflows for updating existing materials (e.g. brochures, clinical briefs, etc.) and phone recording talent or web/social media support. If those workflows aren't appropriate, the requester can request a consultation with someone from our team to define options and build a creative brief based on the problems needed to be solved. We hope to go live with this new experience in early February.

Currently, we use both an external and internal request form for different audiences. The projects created from each request form default into separate folders in order for the traffic person to be able to assign external requests to Project Managers. Once the projects are approved for work, they are moved from their respective intake folders to an Active folder.

One of the challenges we encountered is the ability to create a simple consulting workflow of tasks to get to the details of the request coming from the outside audience. This discussion is to tease out the end result the requester is hoping to achieve. While the initial request may be for an apple, the marketing folks may determine that an orange would meet the desired result more effectively and efficiently. The challenge comes in once it's decided and agreed that an orange is the requested work product, then it needs to go to the orange team and not to the apple team.

Once the project is created by the initial request, a template must be applied. Not all requests may go to the creative (orange) team and therefore tasks may not be required. We could not find a way to either dynamically add tasks (not manual per project please) at the point we knew the team and tasks that were needed or "hide" the tasks until they were identified and then "turn them on". Therefore, we load a very large template with all the possible tasks with all projects (tasks for apple, orange, and banana teams), which then requires manual updates to cancel the tasks that are not necessary.